Boys
by CriminallyNerdy
Summary: For a young girl like Linda, boys are an entirely foreign concept to her. They rude and pushy and gross so she'd decided long ago that she wanted nothing to do with them. And then she met Matt. (Matt x Linda)


Disclaimer: The series doesn't belong to me. If it did this pairing would be canon.

Author's Note: The pairing this fic is focusing on is a bit…different, I'll say that much. I've actually seen a few works of it here and there though so I'm glad I'm not the only one who's interested in it. Call me crazy but I could never quite find the appeal in Matt x Mello.

I actually view their relationship as purely bromance, since they seem like brotherly friends to me more than anything else. Besides, Matt x Mello is everywhere so I wanted to show people there _are _different Matt pairings out there.

I've seen this pairing Matt x Linda included/mentioned in other Mello x Near fics before and I quite like the idea of it actually. So I decided to write a fic of it.

For a young girl like Linda, boys are an entirely foreign concept to her. They rude and pushy and gross so she'd decided long ago that she wanted nothing to do with them. But all of that changed when she first encountered L's top successor, Near. He wasn't like the other boys at all, he was…different. She thought it was a nice kind of different, he contrasted all the other orphans in both attitude and appearance.

He was one of the most intelligent boys she'd ever known, although he was most likely the most intelligent person in the world. And yet he didn't have an ego about it, which is one of the things Linda admired about him. She was infatuated the very second she laid eyes on him, determined to be the first to see what was hidden under that mysterious mask of his.

Unfortunately, it seemed like all of her efforts were for naught so far. She tried everything she could think of; talking to him, playing with him and remembering to be especially friendly to him. It just didn't seem to make any difference, he still remained the same emotionless person that he always was.

Her friends told her just to give up on him, but she was too stubborn to start a new challenge without finishing it first. So that she wouldn't feel too bad about her fruitless endeavors, she vented out her trouble by painting pictures of Near. Linda liked to think that by capturing Near in her art she was gradually learning more about him.

Linda didn't care about the reactions she got from her peers by doing this, though Mello's rude insults were getting on her nerves a bit. She wanted to draw Near, simple as that. There was absolutely nothing that was going to stop her. If this was the only way she could learn more about the albino genius, then so be it.

As it turned out she was wrong in her assumption that everyone was bothered by her art. It had been a pretty rough day, with her recent conversation ending with Near ending an awkward note. The worst part was she couldn't even tell if he was mad at her or not. Boys are so confusing.

Why can't they just be honest about what they think? Linda didn't understand why they had to make things so much more confusing. Rather than feeling happy from it, it felt as if her new Near painting were mocking her. But what upset her most of all was that with her failed attempts to get Near to open up, it felt that her muse was starting to die out. All she wanted was to make him happy but all he did was give her the cold shoulder in return for her efforts. She was torn between throwing it away when someone walked up to her.

Linda looks up at with a start at the presence of this unexpected visitor, quickly blinking back her tears.

"Wh-what do you want?" Linda demands, although she hadn't meant to sound quite so rude. The one who'd stopped by oddly enough, was Matt, who was normally always seen with Mello. She found it a little odd that he wasn't with the blonde now but didn't feel like asking, "If you're here to make fun of my paintings then just get it over with!"

"You drew those pictures?" Matt sounded curious, but Linda couldn't tell if there was any malicious intent in his words.

"So what if I did? It's nothing special or anything like that," Linda grumbles bitterly, crossing her arms together in a huff, "In fact, it's just stupid and pointless. I'm just wasting my time with this."

The reply that Matt said next took her completely by surprise, "I don't think your art is a waste of time."

Linda gaped at him in astonishment, hoping that she wasn't blushing- she never really knew how to respond to compliments, "R-really?"

"Yeah, I don't know much about art, or well anything that doesn't have to do with video games but," Matt begins, "your art has a lot of raw emotion to it. But it really has a nice subtlety to it that makes you have to look past the surface to see. It really caught my attention the first time I saw your art."

Now Linda was even more surprised, especially by his profound comment. She wondered if perhaps he was a lot more intelligent than he led people to believe. Or maybe he didn't care if people thought he was smart or not as long as he had his video games, "Really? Thanks. That's exactly what I was going for. I kind of feel bad now for assuming you'd just be like everyone else…"

"Well, who cares what they think? As long as you enjoy what you do, that's all that matters," Mat gives her an encouraging thumbs up, in his own weird way of being comforting. Well, she thinks, it's the thought that counts, "Don't let them get to you so much. And…don't stop drawing, okay? It'd really be a shame to let all that effort go to waste."

"Thanks Matt, your support really means a lot. I'll keep drawing no matter what anyone else thinks about it."

"That's the spirit! Take care, okay?"

"I-I will!"

While Linda felt she still didn't entirely understand boys, she did understand one thing now. Artists don't always have to cling to one muse their entire lives. And it's not horrible for them to switch to a new one either. In fact, due to her conversation with Matt, she had a pretty good idea of who her new muse might be from now on.


End file.
